Aspects of Organizational Behavior

Organizational Leadership

Characteristics of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is leadership that creates an organizational environment that facilitates change with a high level of commitment, loyalty, productivity, and commitment (Starcevich, 2008). Transformational leaders have many characteristics that participative leaders may not. Transformational leaders are different from participative leaders in that they inspire employees and direct them from a big picture perspective. They share a vision, build a learning environment, support employees, and encourage them to carry out a vision, while fostering self-expression, persistence and interpersonal communication (Starcevich, 2008). Many refer to transformational leaders as having charismatic traits, although they are not charismatic leaders, because they have more qualities than just passion and fervor.

Bass (1990) describes transformational leaders as those that inspire changes in their organizations by "elevating the interests" of their followers by increasing the awareness and acceptance of the purpose and mission of a group, when they encourage others to look beyond their own self-interests, and instead instill a desire to improve the good of the whole, rather than improve the interests of the individual. In fact, transformational leaders are those that have the best interests of the collective body in mind, rather than their own interests in mind, or the interests of even their own group in mind. They have a big picture mindset; they are able to communicate an organizational vision to all employees, thus putting the good of an entire organization above their own self-interest, and even above the interests of a small independent group. This is how they facilitate change.

The reason transformational leaders are so inspiring is that they can inspire trust because they facilitate feelings including altruism and teamwork, and humanism; they do so while enhancing overall satisfaction among employees, and reducing employee wellness and stress. There are several key qualities that define transformational leaders; typically they use stories to help facilitate an organization's mission; they have a unifying sense of purpose that helps instill confidence in others; they have an ability to bolster confidence in an organization's mission where confidence may not otherwise exist. Because of this, followers respect and trust in them to do the right thing, and employees have faith the leader will take the right course of action. Employees also feel pride in their leader.

Transformational leaders are important because they help increase organizational performance and improve customer satisfaction. Typically they have a compassionate nature, and are capable of outlining individual employee's positive qualities, abilities and even weaknesses so they can help improve then and address needs, while highlighting strengths. Transformational leaders also have an uncanny ability to challenge employees that are stuck in old thinking patterns so new ways of thinking can be developed effectively and work patterns that are more efficient can be embraced.

As their title suggests, transformational leaders transform followers, and in doing so, transform an organization. They take what is old and transform it into something new. They have people handle the details of an organization, while they function at the big picture level. They are not detail oriented. This is where followers come in, to handle the details. A key point to make is that transformational leaders are charismatic, but not narcissistic. Bass (1990) points out those pure charismatic leaders succeed through a belief in them, rather than a belief in others. A transformational leader believes in others…thus a true transformational leader believes in the ability in others to get the job done (Starcevich, 2008). Passion and confidence as Bass states, are one thing; when taken too far, they can easily be mistaken for "truth" and reality; an enthusiastic leader can do many things, but can also lead people over a cliff if they are not careful to make sure they are correct in their decisions (1999, p. 11). If an organization is happy to remain static then a transformational leader will have a difficult time engaging the people in the organization to change; if however a change is in the making, then the right transformational leader at the right time will be just the impetus needed to facilitate change (Bass, 1999). There are times when transformational leaders are not successful, because an organization is not ready for change, and/or the organization is happy with the manner in which it conducts business and does not want to change. In instances like this employees and managers are more likely to suffer from burnout from the enthusiastic presence of a passionate transformational leader rather than experience growth and dynamic productivity (Starcevich, 2008). This highlights the importance of using transformational leadership in organizations where change is a constant variable or needed to facilitate effective organizational transformation (Starcevich, 2008).